Disclaimer: If you are reading this article, it is very likely that medical negligence has already happened to you.
Medical negligence is one of those topics that no one wants to be concerned with unless it affects them.
Medical errors lead to the death of thousands of patients every year. In addition, preventable patient harm affects several thousand people.
The worst part is that victims have no clue that they have legal rights.
The good news?
Educating yourself about medical negligence claims can help you determine whether or not you are entitled to a claim and, as a result, get compensation or leave it.
If you want to get familiar with the most important medical negligence related information, take a look at this article.
In here, we will cover:
- What medical negligence is
- Why medical negligence matters
- Four Elements of medical negligence
- Time limits
- Legal support
So, shall we begin?
Medical Negligence 101
You should first know what counts as medical negligence to understand why it matters and how to start the compensation process.
Medical negligence is a term used when the medical care you received falls below the accepted professional standards and when it directly results in harm to a patient.
This means that if an accident occurred, it does not always mean that medical negligence took place.
Medicine is a complicated subject. It can lead to unfortunate outcomes due to many reasons, and mistakes are just one of them.
Medical negligence, on the other hand, happens when a medical professional, like a doctor or a nurse, acts inappropriately, which later on leads to the consequences to a patient.
Statistics from Johns Hopkins research show that less than 1% of the harmful medical incidents are reported as malpractice, which states that there are, annually, millions of victims of medical negligence in the US.
We advise that if you suspect that you have received substandard care, seeking medical negligence legal services you should visit, https://www.paduffy-solicitors.com/medical-negligence/, at your earliest convenience is essential. A medical negligence solicitor will help you determine if you have a claim or not.
Why Medical Negligence Cases Are Important
When you see a doctor or go to the hospital, you believe that all the professionals around you will take good care of you and do everything in their power to help you.
On the other hand, when that doesn’t happen, patients receive harm. They also have to deal with further medical procedures, long recovery processes, and even permanent disabilities.
The costs that medical negligence causes to a victim do not end there.
There are other expenses like missed work, treatment, rehabilitations, and financial burdens to a family. This leads to medical negligence having serious consequences to a patient’s family and their life as well.
But, medical negligence cases are important for another reason.
They not only provide the victim with compensation but also hold the liable responsible. As a result, important lessons are learned, and preventable mistakes are fixed.
Four Elements of Medical Negligence
To be more specific, medical negligence cases can be complex to win, but they are not impossible to handle if you are familiar with what you need to prove.
This information is often unknown, but to have a successful medical negligence claim, one needs to prove four crucial elements.
- Duty of care;
- Breach of duty;
- Causation;
- Damages.
The first one is a duty of care. In other words, the medical professional who provided the substandard care to you should have had an obligation to take care of you, and when you were their patient, they did.
The second one is a breach of duty. This breach is a failure to the accepted standard of care.
In order to be proven, this breach has to have evidence from an independent medical professional who would state what a competent medical professional would have done if the latter was in the situation that you were.
Causation is another important element of a medical negligence case. As we mentioned earlier, you need to prove that the substandard care that you received is the only reason why you have been harmed.
Lastly, the damages show that you have received harm. If you haven’t, you will not have a case.
For each of the elements to be proven, you need enough evidence. This includes medical records, evidence, expert testimonies, and detailed information.
Time Limits
Time is another vital factor in medical negligence cases. The time limits are specific to the jurisdiction in which the incident occurred.
If the time limit is over, the claim cannot be filed. There is no room for interpretation here. No matter how strong your case is, it will not be considered.
According to data, for example, in Ireland, clinical negligence claims take an average of 1,462 days to be concluded. This is a result which is 56% more time-consuming than the United Kingdom or Hong Kong, for instance.
This is the problem because the countdown starts from the date of the incident and when you realized that the negligence happened.
This means that, sometimes, if you do not start working on your claim on time, it will not be possible for you to get compensated.
The advice is that you should contact medical negligence solicitors without wasting any more time.
How Medical Negligence Claims Are Challenging
As you might already have an idea of, claims can be complex due to a number of reasons. It is important to know them in order not to be taken by surprise during the entire process.
The first reason is that the people who will go against you, have large budgets and teams of lawyers. The main reason for that is that hospitals have a policy to hire insurance which helps them defend their side of the story.
The second reason is that medical evidence is required, which means that medical experts need to provide independent professional opinions on your medical records.
The third reason is that the causation can be challenging to prove. They will provide evidence that your condition has not been caused by substandard care.
The final reason is that, during the entire process of the claim, the trauma of medical negligence and the process itself can be emotionally demanding.
How to Get Legal Support?
The final topic we wanted to address in this article is about legal support.
A quick word to the wise: not all solicitors are capable of handling medical negligence cases.
This is so because it is not just a matter of law. You need specialists who know the ins and outs of medicine.
Here are the things that good legal support should include.
- A professional assessment of the case;
- Clear information about your chances of winning the case;
- Qualified medical experts;
- Transparent payment terms;
- Regular updates.
If you want to get in touch with a solicitor, you should know that they will offer you a free initial consultation.
Do’s and Don’ts for Patients After Medical Negligence
If you suspect that you are a medical negligence victim, the first thing that you should do is start documenting everything.
This means that all medical appointments, symptoms, medications, and even the communications with professionals need to be kept in a record.
Secondly, you should request all your medical records. You have the right to receive them, and they will be very helpful for the professionals in question.
In the end, we would like to address that you should not delay your contact with medical negligence solicitors.
On the contrary, the earlier you do so, the sooner you will see the result and the more your chances are to be successful in your case.
And one more important thing. You should not sign anything and not accept any offer before having a word with a solicitor.
Conclusion
Medical negligence can be devastating for the victim and their family.
If you believe that you are a victim of medical negligence, please do not waste any more time and contact medical negligence solicitors to find out what to do next.
Patients should have the right to know about their legal rights and their next steps to see justice served and receive the compensation they deserve.